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Jon Gallagher scored just seven minutes into his first start for Austin FC. (Major League Soccer/Twitter)
With his voice still hoarse from the night's loss, Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff looked haggard as he explained the series of events that led to a 2-1 loss to his former club, Sporting Kansas City.
Wolff said that Captain Alex Ring's red card in the second half cost the match as they struggled to keep together without the glue of the team in the final 25 minutes of play.
"It took red to change... the whole dynamic of the game," Wolff said.
For the first 66 minutes of play, the club held onto a 1-0 white-knuckle lead after Jon Gallagher scored his first goal for the Verde and Black seven minutes after his first start for the team.
Gallagher's start for Austin marked the first time a striker scored for the new team as he replaced Danny Hoesen as the club's starter.
Austin FC were the new kids on the block against establishment team Kansas City, but they managed to control the pace of the match for much of the first half.
Wolff said the club effectively found Kansas City's weak spots in the first half of play.
"It was really clear that it was working exactly how we planned on it," Wolff said. "And we gave them a lot of problems."
Gianluco Busio, Kansas City's 18-year-old midfielder, very nearly tied it up several times as longtime KC defender Graham Zusi fed balls up to goal, but Austin FC kept that clean sheet alive thanks to the efforts of goalkeeper Brad Stuver. Stuver saved the day with a two-handed block in the 32nd minute and kept it going as he ended the match with several saves to his credit.
Thanks partially to luck and partially to Kansas City's inability to finish, the Verde and Black went into the half with no goals given up. They seemed to find their tempo and were functioning like a well-oiled machine until the 67 minute, when Ring left the pitch with a deadly second yellow card. Ring, the glue of the club, would be out for the rest of the game.
Zusi, who was drafted with Austin FC's Matt Besler in 2009 and even lived in the Besler family home for their rookie season, consistently brought the ball up into threatening territory, and the left side suffered from a constant barrage of attacks at the hands of KC.
With ten men on the pitch, Wolff took the defensive route as he subbed in defender Julio Cascante for Gallagher. The move proved ineffective; Austin FC lost all offensive footing they had as they worked to keep Stuver protected at goal, but eventually the wall fell down as KC's Ilie Sanchez capitalized on the club's 11th corner kick to tie the match.
Just as regulation time ended, it was clearly Kansas City's match when the deciding goal flew past Stuver.
Ring's uncharacteristically reckless behavior and Wolff's decision to pump the brakes too soon ultimately cost Austin FC the match, and they fell to eighth in the Western Conference.
Wolff said the team hadn't trained to play with 10, but he didn't excuse the decisions that led to the loss.
"There's no excuses," Wolff said. "We haven't worked on playing with 10 men, we're in our infancy, and I'm sure going forward, we will."
Now, the club faces a new challenge heading into next week's match vs. LA Galaxy. Ring will still be out due to the two yellow cards, and the fledgling club will need to learn from a devastating half that saw the team's depth tested for the first time.
A new lineup may need to be drawn, but Wolff said the club will keep their characteristic intensity as they head to their fifth match on the road.
"We go on the road and we play the way we play, and we're going to try to push the tempo," Wolff said. "I don't think that's changing."
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Over a year after they took the stage for the first time in Los Angeles, Austin FC returned to Banc of America Stadium to snatch the No. 1 spot from LAFC in a 2-1 statement win late Wednesday night.
Austin FC, which has flirted with the top spot in the MLS West this season, has now solidly reached the summit just a year after its second-to-last first season finish. The new top dogs are now 7-2-3 overall.
Here's a look at three highlights from the match:
Flashback in LA
For many Austin FC fans and naysayers alike, the match was more than a fight for the MLS West throne: it also served as a symbol of how far the team has come.
The two clubs first met on the Banc of America pitch as Austin FC saw its first game and first loss all at once in a 2-0 battle last April. It was an exciting but shaky start to the club's first season, and the loss seemed to set the tone for the rest of its inaugural year as the club dipped to second to last in the conference.
If Austin's first season was hallmarked by its first match, then its second-year success was foretold by its back-to-back five-goal victories to kick off the season.
Since then, the club has battled its own first-year shadow, claims of "bonus games" and a few unexpected obstacles—both on and off the pitch—but it has almost always come out on top.
That fight to the top was fully realized Wednesday, even as the club played its toughest opponent yet. Even with a man down in the middle due to Daniel Pereira's red card last game, the club kept its cool through even the trickiest moments of the match. Jhojan Valencia, who patched the Pereira hole in midfield, got his first MLS start and first MLS assist as Ruben Gabrielsen scored the first goal of the game.
Gabrielsen's goal
Nice turn and finish.
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 19, 2022
Ruben Gabrielsen opens the scoring in LA for @AustinFC. pic.twitter.com/OMdTYgqS1x
Gabrielsen came to Austin FC as a potential hero for the team's center back position, but the club's resident Viking has already nabbed two goals in his first season with the team.
"That's center forward material," Austin FC announcer Adrian Healey said as Gabrielsen took control of Valencia's pass, paused to fake out the defense, and calmly tucked the ball into the left corner to complete the first goal of the match.
Feel-good Fagundez
🗣️ @AustinFC is off and running!@DiegolFagundez finds the short corner to make it a 2-0 lead in LA. pic.twitter.com/jgUr2IJQNe
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 19, 2022
Even as LAFC dominated possession for much of the match, Austin FC saw another wide-open goal opportunity crumble as midfielder Diego Fagundez's shot hit the corner goalpost in the 23rd minute.
But Fagundez wasn't finished. The midfielder was short on his Verde hair dye but full of surprises as he nimbly sunk a shot over LAFC defense to make it 2-0 with 10 minutes to go.
Fagundez, who has spent more time setting up goals for his teammates (becoming the No. 1 assister in the MLS in the process), finally took the center stage with his second goal this season.
Owen Wolff, head coach Josh Wolff's own son, had a scoring opportunity of his own foiled by the goalpost as he started his first MLS match as one of the youngest starters in the league this season.
But Austin FC wouldn't score again; instead, LAFC powerhouse Carlos Vela made the win a bit trickier in the 86th minute as he got past Austin keeper Brad Stuver to cut the lead in half. The other Wolff quickly subbed in a five-prong defense as the club kept steady for the final 10 painstaking minutes to win the match.
BONUS: Stuver's career-making match
Six saves on the night in LA for Brad Stuver! 🚫 pic.twitter.com/02V6hcUd3Y
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 19, 2022
After two weeks on the bench due to a knee gash, Austin's star keeper Brad Stuver had the Stuver-iest match of all time (yes, we're making it a word) as he pulled off six saves to help his team to No. 1.
Stuver looked like a pinball machine as he pulled off save after save with his feet, hands and body to keep it nearly 100% clean on the back end.
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